At present, with the development of network technologies, the streaming media are widely used. People can watch live TV programs through a network channel, perform remote monitoring in real time through a network camera, or perform streaming on demand over a network to broadcast the code stream that is stored on the server. In the network streaming applications, people demand smoothness of audio and video and high real-time performance of live broadcast or monitoring applications. Due to the limited network bandwidth, audio and video data transmitted on a network, however, is affected by the network jitter. In this case, the receiving end fails to play video or audio smoothly.
To shield adverse effect of network jitter on audio and video, a data buffer is added at the receiving end of the network. A simple buffer, however, brings a great delay to audio and video on demand. An important issue is how to ensure the smoothness of playing audio and video without delay.
With the prior art, a real-time streaming transmission method is provided. A media server changes the rate of sending data to a playing terminal when the amount of data in the buffer of the playing terminal is abnormal, and restores the rate to a normal sending rate when the amount of data in the buffer of the playing terminal is restored to the normal amount. The data sending rate of the media server varies according to the amount of data in the buffer to ensure that streaming play quality in the case that the network conditions are unsteady.
In the process of implementing the embodiment of the present invention, the inventor, however, discovers that the prior art at least has the following disadvantage: The final output from a media server to a playing terminal enlarges the playing output delay, thus failing to meet the requirements for real-time performance.